Bootstrapping With A Paycheck: Katie Echeverry, CEO of Unique Vintage (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Do you remember what your revenue level was in 2007?

Katie Echeverry: About $100,000.

Sramana Mitra: For the year?

Katie Echeverry: Maybe a little bit more. We got our first space to accommodate the Internet business, but people were coming in off the street wanting to shop. We made a little showroom. Within six months, I had outgrown that space. My neighbor moved out, so we knocked through the wall and expanded. The retail store was growing, so was the Internet store. We were all over each other for several years there.

Around 2009, we moved out and remodeled that space to be a real retail store. It’s a 4,600 sq ft retail store now. We moved to a warehouse down the street to accommodate the Internet business. From that point, we just continued to grow. About two years ago, we moved into a 35,000 sq ft warehouse and office space here in Burbank as well. I have 35 employees. >>>

Bootstrapping With A Paycheck: Katie Echeverry, CEO of Unique Vintage (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What happened in year one and year two? What kind of numbers did you do in year one and year two?

Katie Echeverry: I think I did about $3,000 in my first year, and then $6,000 the next year. Every year, I doubled.

Sramana Mitra: In year three, you still have your pharmaceutical job, and Glamour magazine calls you their favorite place to shop for vintage clothing.

Katie Echeverry: At that point, I was doing $1,000 a month. That month, I did $5,000 a month. That got my attention. I never thought that it would make me enough money to pay the bills. I was really excited about that. Then, I put more and more energy into the website. By 2005, I had gotten married and was pregnant with my first daughter, and I had a decision to make. By this time, I was probably working three or four hours at night on my website. With the baby on the way, I was unsure what to do. I had a nice job with a nice salary and a boss that I adored. It was a tough decision for me. >>>

Bootstrapping With A Paycheck: Katie Echeverry, CEO of Unique Vintage (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page.

Katie had a pharmaceutical sales job that she used to bootstrap with a paycheck for 5 years, before quitting to go full-time with her business, Unique Vintage. More stories like this can be found in my Bootstrapping With A Paycheck book.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Tell us where you’re from. Where did you grow up? Where were you born and raised?

Katie Echeverry: I was born in Burbank, California. I still reside in Burbank, California. I went to school and got my Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, but I ended up in sales. When I was about 26 years old, I ended up being a pharmaceutical sales rep, which I enjoyed. What I liked about sales is the harder I worked, the more money I made. I was a natural entrepreneur, but I just didn’t know the word for it. I worked really hard but that wasn’t enough for me. >>>

Bootstrapping a $10 Million E-Commerce Business: Seismic Audio CEO Steve Acree (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Talk to me a bit about where your revenues are today. We are getting to the end of 2015. What number are you going to close at this year?

Steve Acree: In 2012, Amazon approached us. They wanted to purchase directly from us. That has beefed up the revenue this year. Last year, we did just over $8 million. Normally, we see a big bump at Christmas. If the percentages hold true compared to what we’ve done in the last years, we should be able to hit $10 million this year.

Sramana Mitra: Terrific. How much is eBay and how much is Amazon? What’s the distribution? >>>

Bootstrapping a $10 Million E-Commerce Business: Seismic Audio CEO Steve Acree (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: How much was your total revenue line in 2009 when you had six employees?

Steve Acree: In the neighborhood of $2.5 million to $3 million.

Sramana Mitra: What’s the next major inflection point in the business after 2009?

Steve Acree: It started to get cumbersome. It was three dashboards. You had to plug in tracking numbers in all of them. was little automation. I was hiring employees to do the work. It could have been automated, but I was tight with my money. Finally, I used Channel Advisor, which allowed automation like crazy. It allowed to try new marketplaces, which at that time, wasn’t a whole lot. As the new marketplaces came out, I was able to get on them through Channel Advisor very easily. It allowed me to try a lot of things. I was able to adjust my pricing on Amazon. >>>

Bootstrapping a $10 Million E-Commerce Business: Seismic Audio CEO Steve Acree (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: In 2007 when you introduced this new channel, how much did Amazon do?

Steve Acree: Amazon, at the get-go, didn’t do a whole lot. In the first month, it sold about 10 items. By the six-month mark, it was doing about $10,000 a month in sales. After about 12 months, it was doing about $65,000 in sales. After about 18 months, it got up to about $150,000.

Sramana Mitra: In 2008, were those the only two channels—eBay and Amazon?

Steve Acree: In 2008, I turned the website into a place where you could actually make a purchase. I self-taught myself HTML, which I learned from doing eBay. I created the website myself. At that time, it looked like a 5th grader had made it. Around October of 2008, we introduced the website. By then, I had hired two more employees. People were starting to figure >>>

Bootstrapping a $10 Million E-Commerce Business: Seismic Audio CEO Steve Acree (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What really clicked in gear in 2003? If you look 12 years back when you decided that this was where you’re going to spend your time, what clicked in gear?

Steve Acree: Just the idea that everybody is moving to the Internet. They’re interested in eBay and Amazon. I had really good success with the DVDs. At one point, that was going to be my career. I was going to be the DVD man, but I had to find something new. That’s when I decided to go back to school. I saw that the speakers business was working. After doing research, I realized that there are thousands and thousands of products that relate to audio equipment that are overpriced. I could cut out the middleman. I could become the brand. That’s what I did. I created my own brand. When you buy from us, you’re buying a Seismic Audio product. You’re not buying some other brand name.

Sramana Mitra: I see. So you private-labeled the product.
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Bootstrapping a $10 Million E-Commerce Business: Seismic Audio CEO Steve Acree (Part 1)

E-commerce companies are relatively easy to bootstrap. Steve tells the story of his journey bootstrapping Seismic Audio to almost $10 million in revenue.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go back to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Steve Acree: I was born in Tennessee, about 60 miles north of Memphis. I went to school for computers but I’ve never used my degree. I chose the wrong computer industry. I chose the repair side instead of the software side.

Sramana Mitra: What did you do after you finished college?
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